Effectiveness of Frenuloplasty in Ankyloglossia on Speech Quality: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Ankyloglossia, known as tongue-tie, is an inherited anomaly and is caused by a short nonelastic frenulum that causes limited tongue movement. Because of the limitations of tongue movement, it can affect the quality of speech. Ankyloglossia treatment is to divide or separate fibrous bands or frenuloplasty. The purpose of making this systematic review is to systematically review the results of frenulopasty governance in cases of ankyloglossia related to speech quality. AIM: The aim of this systematic review is to explain the original study in patients with Ankiloglosia who underwent a frenectomy procedure on the tongue tie. This study included research evaluating results related to speech quality. METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Databases, No restrictions on published studies until September 10, 2021. Studies are included if subjects of all ages have ankyloglossia and performed frenuloplasty procedures. The results assessed were the level of speech quality in the subjects of preoperative ankyloglossia and postoperative frenuloplasty. RESULTS: Overall, 473 abstracts resulted from literature searches; 13 studies met the criteria for data extraction and analysis. Of the 13 studies, eight studies were Randomize control trial studies and 5 case–control studies. Three studies evaluated speech outcomes using Likert scores, 3 studies using questionnaires, and 7 studies using different assessments pre-operative and post-operative speech quality. CONCLUSION: Frenuloplasty in subjects with ankyloglossia mostly gives good results in terms of speech quality. Improvements in articulation and mention of consonant phonation improve after frenuloplasty. Frenuloplasty with the 4 flap Z-Plasty Technique provides better results compared to conventional and horizontal vertical frenuloplasty. A long-term study of the correlation of ankyloglossia and speech difficulties and the effects of frenuloplasty is needed.